December 12, 2013

Sean Lee vows to play Sunday, hopes for better luck than he has had in his career

Sean Lee injured his neck on the first play of Monday night's game. He ended up playing 47 of the 72 snaps, leaving for good in the third quarter.

"It was just kind of bad luck the first play of the game," Lee said Thursday. "I got hit directly in the head, right on top of the head, and busted up the neck pretty good. And I tried to play through it a couple of times and it got worse and worse. It kind of worse because I played through it. But it’s one of those deals now I should be all right."

An MRI on Tuesday showed no structural damage. Lee has been limited in practice this week, but he expects to play Sunday against the Packers. He is experimenting with neck rolls this week.

"It is probably similar to a stinger. Probably the same thing," Lee said. "A muscle spasm where you’re neck locks up pretty good can can’t move it for a about a minute and then hitting kind of aggravates it. The more you hit the more it kind of locks up to you."

Lee had missed the previous two games with a hamstring injury. He has missed 15 of a possible 61 games in his career -- two games with a hamstring injury as a rookie, one game in 2011 with a dislocated wrist and 10 games last season with a toe injury that required surgery.

Lee was asked his biggest disappointment of this season: "Personally for me, it’s not staying on the football field. It’s one of those deals where obviously I try to do it and it hasn’t happened. I have to find a way to stay out there, and I’ve said that over and over again. For me, that’s the most frustrating part. I want to be out there in the worst way and I continuously seem to have issues not being on the field."